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Setting up a Pennant Competition

This is a how to guide on setting up a Pennant Competition is BowlsLink.

Logging into BowlsLink #

Login into BowlsLink. www.bowlslink.com.au

Click on the Zone/District/Association/Region/STA name underneath Club Group Administration.

BowlsLink Competition Overview #

Click on Competitions on the left-hand side menu.

The competitions screen will provide a list of all competitions that are available to administer.

The competitions are divided into different tabs based on the status of the Competition.

Copy a Previous Competition #

Copying a previous Competition is very useful as it will apply the exact same settings just requiring a slight change to the Competition title and any dates.

To Copy a Competition you will need to go to View Dashboard via the Edit Spanner or just click on the Competition name.

On the next screen a COPY button will appear top right. Then click COPY to proceed.

Then OK

The Competition will now be available in DRAFT where you can use the Edit Spanner to make the required changes.

Competition Setup #

Click ADD Competition on the top right-hand side. Then choose Advanced.

*You need to complete the eight tabs when setting up a new Competition!!

1 – Details #

Title – this is the main title for your comp, the title will be visible in the result portal and can be updated anytime. Example: 2023 Pennant Competition Division 1

Type – For Pennant competitions choose Round Robin.

Description – Sits underneath the main title in the result portal, and can contain Competition rules.

Organising Body – The body creating the Competition. This is prefilled to the profile that was selected

Supplemental Organising Body – Optional, no need to worry for Pennants.

Status – Change to Active, then entries can be accepted/created.

Event – Optional. This is something that can only be added to the Competition after it has been created. Very useful if the organising body is going to create several competitions related to an Event. Example: 2023 Open Pennants

Logo – Optional. Can add a Logo of your choosing i.e. Sponsor logo or a Zone/District/Association/Region logo of the Pennant Competition.

Precedence – Sets where on the results portal the Competition displays. For Pennants best to use this and put in Division order to tidy the results portal.

Format – Is this a ‘Sides’ Competition? – Toggle to Yes.

Format* – Will need to change to the format of the Pennant Competition. Most cases is Fours.

Specialisation – Description of the team. Most case will be using Team 1, Team 2, etc.

To add more teams/rinks, click + ADD FORMAT for the amount of teams/rinks required.

If need to delete any extra format’s, can click the rubbish bin next to the row.

Dates – Enter the start date of the Competition from the calendar option under Start Date.

Enter the end date of the Competition from the calendar option under the End Date. Include finals in these date ranges if applicable.

Timezone – Choose the correct Timezone for the Competition.

Terms & Conditions – Add the T&Cs that relate to the Competition, these are only seen if self-registration is being used, and must be agreed to by competitors to enter.

BowlsLink App Displays #

The flow for how Competitions displays in the BowlsLink App are as below –

  • Competitions in Draft will not show on the App
  • Once Completed the Competition will no longer show on the App (we will have a filter for this in a future release (Completed))
  • Competitions will appear under Competitions when they are Active and have a valid future date of play.
  • Once Entered the Competition will appear under a member’s Account > My Competitions
  • Once Fixtured the Competition will appear as an Upcoming Match

2 – Key Details #

Enable self-registration? – No need to check this box

Enable per-entry club nomination – Check this box, as this allows clubs to be put in and look after results.

Entries can be capped & Entries can be added to a waiting list when the cap is reached. – No need to put a number in the box and to check the box

Entries can be publicly listed – Allows entries to be seen in the result portal.

Competition Mailing List – Feature if using Email Campaigns, to turn on and email the entrants.

Pre-Entry Club Nominations – Check both boxes as will allow to link a club to an entry and allow them to manage the entry once the Competition is In Play.

Restrictions – Restrictions can be placed on the Pennant Competition.

As per the screen, the main ones is to Restrict entry to financial members and restrict entry to members having one or more participation types. Can put a gender restriction on a Pennant on Competition of a single gender.

Members can also be restricted by Club Membership Types – Select from the available Club Memberships types that have been created by the Club and apply. More than one membership type can be applied.

NOTE: Competitions will restrict entries based on the prohibited gender thus excluding those who do not meet the Competition settings. For example if selecting to Prohibit Women/Female this would allow the gender settings of Man/Male, Non-binary, I use a different term and Prefer not to say, to enter. This setting is in line with the Bowls Australia Transgender and Open Gender Policy

Advanced

Require players to be members – Tick this box.

Allow members to enter more than once – Leave unchecked as don’t want a member to be picked twice within the same side.

Entries must identify at least how many players? – Can be left blank.

Entries should capture – Check or uncheck the boxes to require or show the information. If not required, untick show. Recommend for Pennants having everything unticked, maybe just having Nominated club as show.

Entries must capture player locales – Advanced option requiring address of the players – will require state and post code.

Disable manage entry option for entrant – Do not tick.

Team Name Format – Leave this blank.

Click SAVE & CONTINUE

3 – Entry Additional Details #

In this section, extra questions can be asked of the team

No additional details are required for Pennants. Can go straight to section 5.

4 – Entrant Additional Details #

In this section, extra questions can be asked of the players. No additional details are required for Pennants. Can go straight to section 5.

5 – Fees #

As fees for Pennants are normally done directly with the Zone/District/Region/Association/STA no need to worry about this section

6 – Add-Ons #

In this section, is options to sell extras for the Competition, this could include tournament shirts, bowls cloth’s, hats, etc.

No add-ons are normally required for Pennants. You can go straight to section 7.

7 – Dates & Times #

No need to worry about section 6, as will do dates and times in fixturing and greens will be allocated to home team automictically.

If playing any games at a netural ground e.g. Finals, can be added in now or at any time by following the below steps.

If not adding, go to section 7

Assign Times, Greens & Rinks

This section allows the club to assign locations and rinks at the club.

*If club greens are not in the system, need to contact the STA to get them added Click the check box to open the options

Select Greens and Rinks Click + ADD Green to open.

Green – From the drop down list choose the club.

Then check the required rinks, tick at least one Rink for it to be an option when doing fixturing later on.

Click the + ADD Green to add a section and third Green if required. Once done, click SAVE & CONTINUE

8 – Results Settings #

This section is where the result for scoring is allocated.

Competition Profile From the drop-down menu choose the type of game for the Competition. As Pennants is a Sides game, choose Sides & Shots.

Generic Settings – Only need to check this box if allowing Sides to use the live scoring app.

Member Results Options – Optional settings

The default setting is Home team puts scores in after the game and Away team confirms the results.

Can change this to have Home team can finalize option.

Can turn on option to Auto Finalise confirmed results after so many hours. This can be a feature used as Ladders and results are not updated until results are confirmed.

Scoring Method – Choose the correct scoring method. Most cases with be SHOTS that is chosen.

Side Rink Options – This section is asking for the points scoring for each Rink in the side.

Point for Rink Win – Place how many points a Rink wins for the Rink win.

Points for a Rink Draw – Place how many points a Rink wins for the Rink draw.

Points for Rink Loss/Points for Rink Bye/Points for Rink Win by Forfeit – Make sure these are as 0 as will point overall points for these later on.

Shots for Rink win by Forfeit & Shots for Rink Bye – Make sure as 0 as will put total shots later on.

Entrant can play only one Rink Match per Match? – make sure is changed to YES, otherwise players can be selected in multiple rinks. Winning Criteria – This is how the Pennant Competition determines the overall Side winner. In most cases it is SHOTS.

Team Options – Can toggle on or off if want to Enable the team shuffle option

Competition Marker – This section as relates to the scoring app. should you wish to have games live scored by a Non-Player.

Points per Match – This is where the points for a overall side win are placed.

Forfeits/Byes – makes sure this is all the points for a forfeit/Bye. Unplayed – This is normally the split overall points or when the game can not be played.

Scores per Match – This will only be used if Byes/Forfeits give shots to scores. Scores can stay 0.

Ladder Criteria – Can choose an option on how the ladder can be sorted. There are many options depending on the scoring system chosen.

We recommend: POINTS – SCORE DIFFERENCE – SCORE PERCENTAGE or create a custom ladder.

Public Results Display Settings – This is what will be displayed on https://results.bowlslink.com.au/ Recommend choosing Shots & Points.

App Scoring Settings – Leave these as they are for the scoring app.

Click FINISH

Competition Dashboard #

Viewing your competitions and click its name or accessing it via the tool icon, this will display its Dashboard.

The Competition dashboard will provide a snapshot of key information such as the Competition Type, Format, Organising Body, Date, Status/State, Entries, Competition Mailing List (if it has been turned on), Fixtures and QR Code for mobile entries.

Each of these details can be edited, except for the QR Code.

Administrators will be able to access both shareable links and downloadable QR code image files, which can be sent to members once competitions are open for entries.

These links will take members directly to the Competition registration page, removing the need to manually search by Competition name or organising body. Please note that the links will only be valid for entries made through the BowlsLink App.

Adding an entry into BowlsLink as the Administrator #

For a Pennant Competition, as the administrator for the Competition, you will be putting in the Clubs Side entries and linking them to the club so they can edit once season starts.

This is done in the Entries screen under Competitions.

Then on the right side of the screen choose ADD ENTRY.

A pop-up box will appear and from the drop-down box select the correct Competition.

Select GET STARTED.

Players – No need to do anything on this page as you don’t know the players for each side. Click NEXT.

Primary Contact – From the drop-down box, need to select the – -SOMEONE ELSE? Option.

There is two Options from here on what you can do.

If you are unsure who is the Primary Contact or don’t have their National Member Number, you can just put the club name in the First and Last name Boxes. Both Boxes need to be filled in. If club has only one name, just put a full stop in the Last Name box. Then click NEXT.

Link a Member to the Entry

If you know who the primary contact is for the entries and have that personal National Membership Number, you can link them to the entry.

*If not doing this, go below to KEY DETAILS. Click + LINK MEMBER located on the right side above the Last Name box.

MEMBER LOOKUP – A member lookup box will appear on the right side. Will need to place the member’s National ID number in the top box and then click the SEARCH box below.

MEMBER LOOKUP – It will then show options matching the National Member Number, if the right person appears, click the SELECT button against the right club for that entry.

This will then show the members name that has been linked in the First and Last Name boxes. Click NEXT.

Key Details

Team Name – Will default to the name that was placed in the Primary Contact. You will need to override to say the clubs name.

Team Name (abbreviated) – Can leave this blank unless the club has a very long name.

Nominated Club – As this is for Pennants, need to link to a club so they can manage the entry. Click +LINK CLUB.

LINK CLUB – In the search bar, put the club name. Need to put at least 3 characters in order to search.

Best to just put the club name and don’t add Bowls Club or Bowling Club to the end as might not find them in the search. Click SEARCH.

It will then show the search results.

Click SELECT against the correct club. If right club did not appear, click the BACK box and retry the search.

LOGO

If you have the club logo, can attach it here, but not required, the club can add it later if they choose to.

COLOUR

Leave this Click NEXT.

FEES – As no fees being taken, Click NEXT.

Confirmation

This is a summary of all the players information entered.

Confirm details are correct.

Under TERMS & CONDITIONS, click the box to agree and then click CONFIRM AND SUBMIT.

Continue the above steps to put in all the Sides for this Competition.

Viewing Entries in the BowlsLink System #

Entries can be viewed in the system when they come in or you have completed putting them all in.

To view entries, under Competitions and then the active tab, find the Competition.

Click on the spanner under the actions column and choose Entries. This will place a filter and only show the entries for this Competition.

In the Actions column, click on the spanner against the entry.

Three options are available:

VIEW – View the entry and potentially edit from that view.

RESEND CONFIRMATION – If the primary contact didn’t receive the original confirmation, it can be resent.

WITHDRAW – Withdraw the entry from the Competition. (Remember if fees have been taken a refund may be required).

Fixtures #

Once entries are in the system under the Competition, fixtures can be completed.

The below steps will guide you through importing your fixture into the system.

The first step is to put your fixture into the correct template. You can view have to do this via Import fixtures using a template. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the Bowls Australia BowlsLink team.

Select FIXTURES under competitions.

On the top right-hand side, select NEW FIXTURES.

A pop-up box will appear. From the drop-down list select the correct Competition.

Click GET STARTED.

Generate fixtures by:

Change this to IMPORTING A TEMPLATE parameters.

TEMPLATE

Apply the template to how many section?

Leave this as 1 if you have sections, can set this up in your fixture template

Import From a local file: Click the CHOOSE FILE box. This will let you search from your files for the fixture you have created as a .csv file.

Import successful?

Once you choose the file, it will do a check to make sure it is compatible.

You will either see a Green bar to say Import Successful

or

A Red bar saying unsuccessful. Below in the Output will explain the error. If all ok and template is successfully imported, click CONTINUE.

Once generated, this page will be displayed. Click on Round Settings.

Fill out the playing dates and match start times (noting in 24 hour time) On the right click SAVE & APPLY and then SAVE on the left. (only do this if you didn’t put dates and times in the template you uploaded if you did skip these steps to and go back to fixtures).

The Blue Lighting Bolt button can do an autofill. E.g. choose how many days apart each round is, if all at the same time and also which days will be missed (for example Christmas day). Click APPLY once completed.

Click on fixtures on the left-hand side menu bar.

It will default to the final tab. Select the Draft Tab.

Find the fixture and go to the Actions column and click on the spanner. From here, select VIEW COMPETITORS.

Select the UNMAPPED tab.

This will then show all the entries under this Competition.“Map” them to a position number on the fixture.

Next to each team, there is a Spanner. Click the SPANNER. Choose MAP COMPETITOR.

A MAP COMPETITOR box will pop up.

From here select the correct mapping value from the numbers available as per the fixture.

Then click MAP.

Do this for each team. *If needing to Map a BYE. Can do this from here. Top right hand side, is MAP BYE option. Click this and allocated to the correct Mapping Number.

The teams will then move from the UNMAPPED tab to the MAPPED tab. Select the MAPPED tab to view their number.

Individual teams mapping numbers can be changed.

Click on the spanner in the action column.

Choose Edit Mapping or Unmap Competitor.

If swapping teams around, unmap one team first before editing the next. Once unmapped, the entry will go back into the unmapped tab.

To view the matches, click on Back to Fixtures up the top.

In the draft fixture page, find the Competition again, click on the spanner in the Actions column. Click on View Matches.

A list of all the matches will be displayed. Locations will be automatically added as Home Club.

If for any reason need to change the location.

Against the individual match, select the spanner in the ACTIONS column. Select EDIT.

First you’ll need to click the padlock next to Edit Match. This will unlock the fields.

Under LOCATION, click the + select the drop-down list and choose the correct Rink. Then click SAVE. If it is greyed out, that is because no locations are set in the Competition. The Format is an option that you can assign individual teams to rinks and this will display in the results portal.

Once completed, finalise the fixtures. Select BACK TO FIXTURES.

Find the Competition. Click the spanner in the ACTIONS column and click MAKE FINAL.

A confirmation box will be displayed. Select FINALISE.

This has now moved the fixture to the final tab.

Publish the fixture so it can be viewed on the public portal.

Locate the Competition, under the ACTIONS column, and select the spanner. Select Edit.

The screen will appear and ask IS PUBLISHABLE?

Click the slider to change to YES and then click SAVE. Then bottom right hand side of screen, Green message will appear saying fixtures saved.

Click back on Competitions and then the ACTIVE tab. Move the Competition to IN PLAY. Allowing scores to be entered and viewed on the public portal.

Find the Competition. Click on the spanner under the ACTIONS column. Click on EDIT.

Under the details tab, scroll halfway down until find STATUS. Change it from ACTIVE to IN-PLAY.

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click SAVE & CONTINUE.

Select COMPETITIONS in the left-hand side menu bar.

Entering Teams and Scores #

Clubs are now able to enter their players into the Sides and scores in.

For a how to guide on that see BowlsLink Pennant Training Guide.